Alania wants a deck that helps every player at the table, itself included. It also suits a deck that casts lots of instant and sorcery spells.
Mana cost
Blue, Red ()
Power / toughness3 / 5
RarityRare
Whenever you cast a spell, if it's the first instant spell, the first sorcery spell, or the first Otter spell other than Alania you've cast this turn, you may have target opponent draw a card. If you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Picked for what they do in Alania's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Alania's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Alania works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast26 Jul 2024
A resolving copy of a permanent spell becomes a token. That token isn’t “created” and won’t interact with abilities that care about tokens being created.
Wizards of the Coast26 Jul 2024
Alania’s ability and the copy it creates both resolve before the spell that caused the ability to trigger. They resolve even if the spell is countered before the copy is created.
Wizards of the Coast26 Jul 2024
Alania’s ability can trigger up to three times in a single turn: once when you cast your first instant, once when you cast your first sorcery, and once when you cast your first Otter spell other than Alania.
Wizards of the Coast26 Jul 2024
Any choices made when the spell resolves won’t have been made yet when it’s copied. Any such choices will be made separately when the copy resolves.
Wizards of the Coast26 Jul 2024
If the spell that’s copied has an X whose value was determined as it was cast, the copy has the same value of X.
Wizards of the Coast26 Jul 2024
The copy is created on the stack, so it’s not “cast.” Abilities that trigger when a player casts a spell won’t trigger.
Wizards of the Coast26 Jul 2024
The copy will have the same targets as the spell it’s copying unless you choose new ones. You may change any number of the targets, including all of them or none of them. If, for one of the targets, you can’t choose a new legal target, then it remains unchanged (even if the current target is illegal).
Wizards of the Coast26 Jul 2024
You can’t choose to pay any additional costs for a copied spell. However, effects based on any additional costs that were paid for the original spell are copied as though those same costs were paid for the copy too.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryURPlayers write colors as letters: U for blue, R for red. Blue is U because B was already taken by black.Group HugGroup Hug decks give every player extra cards, mana or life, making friends at the table while they quietly work toward their own win. The trick is to be the player best placed to use all that extra.Open the Group Hug pageGroup HugGives everyone at the table something: extra cards, extra mana, extra lands. It really is generous, and that is the trick: the player who built the deck around it knows what to do with the surplus, and the other three usually do not. Howling Mine, Heartbeat of Spring, Rites of FlourishingOpen the Group Hug pageDrawDraws you extra cards. More cards means more choices every turn, and in a 100-card deck it is the main way to find the pieces you need. Rhystic Study, SkullclampOpen the Draw pageSpellslingerSpellslinger decks cast lots of instants and sorceries, one-time spells, and play creatures that reward every spell you cast. Instants and sorceries take effect once and then go to your graveyard, and an instant can even be cast during another player's turn.Open the Spellslinger pageAikido / RedirectionTurns an opponent's own spell, ability or damage back on them. It changes the spell's target, copies it, or sends the damage somewhere else. Aikido is the community's name for it, borrowed from the martial art. Deflecting Swat, Narset's ReversalOpen the Aikido / Redirection pageSpell CopyingCopies a spell or an ability. The copy is not cast, so it costs nothing extra and does not set off cards that care about casting a spell. Reverberate, Storm-Kiln ArtistOpen the Spell Copying pageControlControl decks answer what everyone else plays, stopping spells and removing dangerous cards, then win slowly once they are in charge. Expect lots of removal, spells that cancel other spells, and extra card draw.Open the Control pageStack InteractionActs while a spell is waiting to take effect: countering it, changing what it targets, or copying it. When someone casts a spell it waits on the stack, and every player gets priority, a chance to respond, before it happens. Counterspell, NegateOpen the Stack Interaction page
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